FLINT, MI -- A Flint man lay trapped inside his smoke-filled,
flame-engulfed home Thursday morning when two Michigan State Police troopers
working in Flint pulled him to safety.

Around 6 a.m. March 20, troopers Matthew Kalakay and Sean Thomas were
on routine patrol near the residence in the 1800 block of Woodlin Driv. when
they overhead radio traffic about a house fire with a man trapped
inside.

They arrived before firefighters and saw the roof engulfed
in flames and thick smoke billowing from the home.

"Family members reported that they could hear him in the
house yelling for help after they got out," Lt. Patrick Young of the Michigan State Police Flint Post said. "But the smoke was so thick – it was billowing
out of the front door – they couldn't see to go in and get him, and he couldn't
see to find his way out. They started yelling for him, telling him to follow
the sound of their voice."

The troopers pushed their way through the home, where they
found the man collapsed on the floor, conscious but disoriented. They pulled
him out of the home and he was transported to a nearby hospital for an
examination.

"Had they not pulled him out of that smoke- and fire-filled
house, we feel it was very likely that it would have been a fatality," Young
said.

Young said the man was reportedly transferred to Detroit
Receiving Hospital, where he was being treated for high levels of carbon
monoxide and is expected to recover.